The Hunted

Directed by William Friedkin, The Hunted follows an elite tracker (Tommy Lee Jones’ L.T. Bonham) as he’s tasked with finding and capturing a deadly assassin (Benicio Del Toro’s Aaron Hallam). Filmmaker Friedkin, armed with David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, and Art Monterastelli’s screenplay, delivers an erratic yet entertaining thriller that grows more and more engrossing as it unfolds, with the slow-moving bent of the picture’s opening stretch generally preventing the viewer from wholeheartedly connecting to the material or characters. (It’s clear, in terms of the latter, that Friedkin’s pared-down approach generally ensures that neither Jones nor Del Toro’s respective figures becomes as compelling as the viewer might’ve hoped.) There’s little doubt, then, that The Hunted benefits substantially from a comparatively propulsive second half riddled with exciting, satisfying action digressions and set-pieces, including a predictably terrific car chase about midway through, and it’s clear, too, that the impressively brutal climactic fight ensures that the whole thing ends on a palpably memorable note – which ultimately cements the movie’s place as a solid piece of work that generally sustains one’s interest from start to finish.

*** out of ****